CAPTAIN BLOOD PUBLISHED BY INFOGRAMES INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTS SPECTRUM VERSION WRITTEN BY IMAGITEC 1988 INSTRUCTIONS FOR PLAY LOADING SPECTRUM + 3 DISK Insert disk into drive, then select Loader from the Menu screen and press ENTER. LOADING SPECTRUM CASSETTE Insert the disk in the drive. Type LOAD "BLOOD" and press ENTER. Press PLAY on cassette player. LOADING SPECTRUM 128K AND PLUS 2 CASSETTE Insert fully rewound cassette into cassette player. Select «Tape loader" from menu screen and press ENTER. Press PLAY on cassette player. At the start of the game when requested press the number key that corresponds to your language. COMMANDS The program functions with joystick or keyboard. At the start of the game choose joystick or keyboard from the following menu: 1 - KEMPSTON JOYSTICK 2 - SINCLAIR JOYSTICK 3 - CURSOR JOYSTICK 4 - KEYS Q,A,O,P, & SPACE 5 - PLAY GAME -UP: ...........Q -DOWN: .........A -LEFT:..........O -RIGHT: ........P -Confirm:.......Space bar To shorten the flying sequence of the hyperspace, press ENTER. EXTERIOR VISION Simply click on this icon to switch from CONTROL PANEL mode to EXTERIOR VISION. To come back from EXTERIOR VISION to CONTROL PANEL mode, click on any inactive button (eye). GALACTIC MAP (CHOOSING A DESTINATION) In CONTROL PANEL mode, click on the GALACTIC MAP icon to access a view of the HYDRA galaxy. How to use the GALACTIC MAP : First select your destination's X coordinate. You do this by clicking on the red vertical selection bar which you then drag onto the desired X coordinate. In the left window you can see the coordinates of Blood's finger. The right window displays the chosen coordinates (the coordinates for the point of intersection of the selection bars). Next, select yourdestination'sY coordinate. You do this by clicking on the red horizontal selection bar which you then place on the Y coordinate position of your choice. As previously stated, the chosen destination coordinates are at the point where the two selection bars meet. When you have chosen your destination coordinates, strap yourself in and click on the HYPERSPACE icon. To speed up the HYPERSPACE sequence, click the right mouse button at the beginning or during the sequence. OORXX CONTACT MISSION (LANDING AND PILOTING THE OORXX) In EXTERIOR VISION mode, click on the OORXX CONTACT MISSION icon. The OORXX is teleported and lands immediately. You then have total flight-control ofthe OORXX with yourmouse. You can climb, dive and turn. -To accelerate press right mouse button. -To decelerate press left mouse button. You are advised not to fly into mountains. If the planet has defense systems, you should fly as low as possible. When the OORXX is detected by the enemy, two red arrows will start to cross the screen towards each other. When they meet in center-screen, the OORXX blows up. To avoid having your OORXX destroyed in this way, dive as far as you can, until the arrows disappear. Life-forms in the Hydra galaxy have a weird habit of living at the very end of canyons. You'll have to find the canyons. The OORXX is equipped with a life-form detector which is a red aim symbol. It will follow the mouse's movement on the screen. When the detector flashes, that means you're flying the OORXX in the right direction. If an arrow shows up beside the detector, that means you must turn in the direction the arrow is pointing to get onto the right heading. There are two onscreen indicators during flight: - The SPEED indicator at the bottom of the screen. - The ALTITUDE indicator on each side of the screen. When a life-form is found at the end of a canyon, the OORXX is programmed to land immediately. If the planet is deserted, the OORXX will land, extremely exhausted. If you are currently transporting a being in the Ark's fridgitorium. the TELEPORT icon will activate so that you canteleport the being onto the planet if you want. To do so, just click on the TELEPORT icon. At any time during the flight, you can request a photo of the fractal scenery around the OORXX. Simply press the SPACE bar on your keyboard. The OORXX will stop. To restart flying, press the SPACE bar again. OORXX DESTROY MISSION (DESTRUCTION OF A PLANET) In EXTERIOR VISION mode, you can teleport an OORXX onto a planet in order to destroy it. Just click on the OORXX DESTROY MISSION icon. The planet will be irretrievably zapped. OORXX GEOPHOTO MISSION (SURFACE SCAN) In EXTERIOR VISION mode. you can teleport an OORXX into low orbit to collect aerial pictures of the planet. A special detector will indicate whether the planet is equipped with a defense system. To activate this mission, click on the OORXX GEOPHOTO MISSION icon, once for a medium altitude scan, and once again for a low altitude scan. To return to normal mode, click on the EXTERIOR VISION icon. UPCOM MODULE (UNIVERSAL PROTOCOL OF COMMUNICATION) Once contact has been established with a sentient life-form in a canyon or when a being has been teleported from the Ark's fridgitorium, the UPCOM comes on automatically. The UPCOM is a system of communication using icons. The UPCOM uses a number of windows, which will each be described. The dictionary window : at the bottom of the screen. This icon dictionary uses two sideways scrollings, one rapid (activated by clicking on a red elevator bar situated under the dictionary icon), the other slow (activated by placing Blood's finger over two red-striped boxes situated on either side of the dictionary icon). By moving Blood's finger over the dictionary icon, you can read a simultaneous translation of the icon into human language. The translation window is just above the UPCOM. The conversation windows : situated above the dictionary icon and separated by a central mouth. a) The left hand window; reserved for the life-form you're communicating with. To translate his (or its) messages, move Blood's finger over them. As long asthe central mouth is moving,the being hasn'tfinished saying what it wants to say. Click on the central mouth to read the next sentence. When the mouth stops moving, you can start sending your message. It is possible to understand the sentences spoken by the being, if you learn his language. Each icon represents a specific speech-sound. b) The right-hand window; Reserved for your use. You can enter your messages by clicking on the icons of yourchoice in the icon dictionary. A small cursor under that window may be moved in order to insert an icon. Simply click on it. A delete option is available : click on the arrow situated to the right under the window. To transmit your sentences, click on the central mouth. You can teleport a being into the fridgitorium, if the being agrees. At that moment, the TELEPORT icon will be enabled. To teleport the life-form, click on the TELEPORT icon. Your conversational partner can, for reasons best known to himself, break off the discussion at any time. If you want to leave the UPCOM during a conversation, click on the triangle at the right of the screen, under the DELETE arrow. TELEPORT This icon is used to teleport a being from the planet into the Ark's fridgitorium. The icon will not be enabled until a being with whom you are in conversation consents to be teleported. If the icon is enabled and if you want to teleport the life-form, Just click on the icon. DISINTEGRATE THE TELEPORTED BEING When a life-form is teleported to the fridgitorium, you can decide to destroy the life-form by disintegrating it. If it's one of the Numbers, Blood will recover some of his vital fluid and survive a little longer. FRIDGITORIUM It's a cryonization container where teleported beings are conserved. The beings in question must give theirconsentbecausethe teleport system uses psychic energy generated by the being's will, a little like hypnosis. For security reasons, living beings cannot be teleported into the Ark, so they must be cryonized and stocked in the fridgitorium. The fridgitorium has a disintegrate crematorium feature which you can use if you feel like it. This feature recovers vital fluid, and soBloodcan use it on the Numbers. All other forms of vital fluid are unfortunately incompatible with Blood's organism. NOTE : Pacemakers are automatically extracted before cremation, so there is no risk of explosion during the disintegration phase. THE OORXX BIRTH RAMP The layer is incorporated into the Ark's structure, in the pram zone. This area is completely sterile, of course. The newly-laid baby OORXX are propelled onto the birth ramp immediately after a stress-free birth. The layer is able to lay endless numbers of babies. TIME Onboard time is displayed on the clock, in Earthling minutes and seconds. The UPCOM takes account of the minutes only. 60.45 means 60 minutes and 45 seconds, which comes to HOUR 60 for the UPCOM. The game is limited to 45 realtime hours. THE ? COMMAND When an OORXX has already been placed on a planet, it may be reactivated, which saves you from having to pilot another through all those dangerous mountains. When the Ark stops after a hyperspace jump, near a planet you've already visited, simply switch to CONTROL PANEL mode by clicking on a closed (disenabled) button. The ? command is then available and enabled. Click on it to reactivate the OORXX. You will inevitably catch up with the character you talked to the last time. PLAYING HINTS CAPTAIN BLOOD'S Ark stops near an inhabited planet at the start of the game. The HYDRA galaxy is biggish, boasting 32,768 inhabitable planets noted on the map. Not all of them actually have thinking life-forms living on them, so it's easy to get very lost and see nobody for millions ofyears. That's why it's a damned good idea to note down the precise coordinates of inhabited planets before plunging into the immensity of unknown space. That way. you can always get back to a familiar place. Ask any space Jock : trusting your luck is a non-viable survival option. The program recreates the galaxy each time you begin a game. That means that coordinates of inhabited planets are not valid from one game to the next. Bear in mind that Blood is degenerating. Don't be surprised if his hand gets the shakes from time to time ; it's normal. It's also a bad sign! HE MUST GET HIS VITAL FLUID BACK. That's the only way he can regenerate. To recover the vital fluid. Blood has to find the NUMBERS and disintegrate them in the Ark's fridgitorium. This software explores a new concept, the BIOGAME. The characters can evolve, be born, die, trade information and generally get on with their own independant lives. Strange things can happen; planets can appear or disappear overnight, the behaviour of matter is out of our control! You can transport beings from one planet to another but you'll have to win their trust first. Study their behaviour closely, because knowing who you're dealing with can mean the difference between life and death. GAME NOVELLA ------------ THE ARK ACCORDING TO CAPTAIN BLOOD INDEX CHAPTER 1 – Fishy goings on CHAPTER 2 – And Bob made Blood CHAPTER 3 - Report from Ark's Bio-writer CHAPTER 4 – Clones CHAPTER 5 - The OORXX layer CHAPTER 6 – Mastochok CHAPTER 7 - The final 5 NUMBERS A BRIEF GLOSSARY OF FAUNA ON HYDRA CHAPTER 1 (Fishy goings on) This sinister little tale started life one grey and drizzly winter's day. The city was soaked to the bone. A constant honking of angry car-horns drilled and shook the air. Even the dry if stuffy kind that hung around the 20th floor of 10 Eezy street, where a sheet of grimy paper taped to the door of number 7 vibrated arthritically. The writing on the paper said: BOB MORLOK FOR PITY'S SAKE KEEP QUIET «As if angry car-horns could read...» thought the postman, shaking his head in disgust. He knocked. The door opened a fraction. «You Morlok?» «Gasp! How did you guess?», yawned a bleary shadow behind the door. «Special Delivery. Sign here!» snarled the postman wearily, sticking a greasy pad with ball-point attached into Morlok's unshaven face. Managing trembly if recognizable cross, Bob Morlok was handed a letter. Muttering what may have been «thanks», he shut the door and looked around for the letter-opener. Then he remembered what had happened the last time he'd used it, and ripped open the envelope with his teeth instead. Your Royalties for the second quarter. Total before taxes = 35 c. Best wishes, your publisher. Bob tried but couldn't keep back a violent bout of nausea. He smoked his first Camel of the day. Thirty five cents to live on for three months! «I gotta program a major hit», thought Bob «with a killer story-line. Or else.» This attic room had a skylight. He gazed through it at the dripping roof-tops and sighed. He was clean out of ideas. He shut his eyes and squeezed. Nothing came. Total block. Crushing his last butt into an overflowing ashtray, Bob announced to anyone who cared to listen (no one did): «Blood's dead. Stone cold dead as a dodo. He'll write no more games and his pseudonym will as of now disappear from all local Computarama shelves, forever.» Bob Morlok sighed once more and decided on a breath of air. The joint in Binary street was open. Loud music poured out. He walked over to the bar and ordered a coffee. Beside him, some kids were noisily wiping out aliens on a video game. Bob turned to look. Intergalactic robots exploded with inhuman shrieks. The skinny kid locked onto the joystick was yelling triumphantly - he'd just made the hi score. Bob snorted, «What a zero!» The insult had the effect of breaking up the party atmosphere. «0h yeah? Go ahead and beat my score, pops 1», skinny snickered. This was what Bob had been angling for. His right hand closed over the stick and his left pushed «PLAY». The following carnage of screaming metal, green blood and exploding alien troop-ships was all over in a few seconds. Enemy losses were so sickeningly enormous that the score blocked on 999999. Without even looking, Bob typed in B-L-O-O-D as the latest hi-scorer. «Y-you're B-Blood?», stammered skinny who looked like he'd just swallowed a live pac-man. «Gaze up in awe, junior" drawled Bob kindly, "you've just lived through a major moment in your life.» With that he turned and disappeared through the door, leaving behind one unpaid-for coffee and a bunch of amazed kids. «That really zapped ‘em», grinned Bob to himself. He was savouring the glory so much that he didn't see the old man walking towards him. Bob Moriok looked down at the old guy sprawling on the sidewalk. «Gee, I'm really sorry. Are you okay?», he asked, helping the other to his feet. «Sure, sure. Don't worry about it, young feller. Not your fault if I'm so absent-minded.» Suddenly Bob's eyes switched on. «Wow! You can't be! You aren't! Damn it, you are Charles Darwin, the famous bio- whatever.» «No need to shout it out, son; there may be newspaper hacks lounging in the trash-cans.» «0h, yeah, sure. Say, listen. Your books really made a major impression. All that stuff about super bonus scores for the fastest.» «Yes, well, that's one way of...» «Hey, wait a minute. Aren't you supposed to be dead, theoretically?» «Let's just say I'm living incognito for the moment.» «Wow! That's major. Hey, listen. Let me buy you a drink. No, really.» Morlok guided his new friend into a nearby bar. They sat down close to a pinball machine. «Beer», said Bob to the guy who was taking orders. «Water, please», said Darwin. «Water, huh», muttered the waiter and disappeared. «Interested in biology, are you, Mr uh...» «Blood. That's my name.» «Blood, eh? My, my. Well, well.» The old man's gaze centred on the pinball machine. He glowered. «Accursed invention. I've been working on video games for months. That's the reason I came here to Slick City - but who listens to an old dodderer called Mortimer Slithe!» «Slithe. Your pseudonym is Slithe? You could've done better than that!» «A long story. And unpleasant. I'm stuck with Slithe. No matter. Do you believe in aliens, Blood?» Bob was taken aback by the question. He stammered, «well, you know, I er..» But his lack of conviction went unnoticed. Slithe was getting into gear: « They're here!», he whispered, waving his cane toward the video game. Then looking Blood right in the eye, he thundered, «They're here! Pac-men are reproducing in millions! They actually exist, do you hear me!» Bob-Blood reeled in shock. The old man suddenly stood up and left the bar. Bob was too stunned to stop him. That was the last he ever saw of Charles Darwin. CHAPTER 2 (And Bob made Blood) Back in his apartment, Bob's mind was still reeling. Darwin, Pac-people, aliens... what if it was true? «Ye Gods! If it's really happening, something's gotta be done!», thought Bob. «1 know», he cried. «I'll infiltrate them. That's my new masterpiece! I'll need to create a being based on man, a kind of super man, completely competent like... like, MYSELF!» And while he raved, Bob was already at the keyboard, typing in the vital first instructions. Months passed. List-outs snaked through all the available space. Ashtrays were piled on ashtrays. Bob programmed on. Six months later, he had created a vessel called ARK, fitted with an on-board computer called bio-consciousness. Still later, the Ark was placed under the command of his computer double: Captain BLOOD. His mission: fight evil in all the computerized universe... Lastly, he created a bio-writer whose task would be to recount the amazing saga in detail. Finally came the great day. He typed in the final momentous instruction: